Qualcomm Technologies, a chipset company, said it has started sampling Qualcomm Snapdragon X20 LTE chipset, its seventh-generation LTE multimode modem and second generation Gigabit LTE solution.

Qualcomm said several OEMs and operators will be launching Gigabit LTE devices and networks utilizing the Snapdragon X20 LTE modem in the first half of 2018.

Built on 10nm FinFET process, the Qualcomm modem and its Snapdragon X20 LTE transceiver is the first commercially announced Gigabit LTE chipset to deliver fiber-like LTE Category 18 download speeds of up to 1.2 Gbps, a 20 percent improvement in download speeds over the previous generation.

Qualcomm Snapdragon X20 LTE chipset allows support for up to 5×20 MHz downlink Carrier Aggregation (CA) across licensed and unlicensed FDD and TDD radio frequencies, as well as 4×4 MIMO on up to three aggregated LTE carriers.

Snapdragon X20 LTE chipset from Qualcomm also supports integrated Dual SIM Dual VoLTE (DSDV) capability, a first for Snapdragon LTE modems.

The semiconductor company said Snapdragon X20 LTE modem are supported by single-chip RF transceiver capable of simultaneously receiving up to 12 spatial streams of LTE data.

Snapdragon X20 LTE modem can simultaneously receive 12 unique streams of data on as few as three 20 MHz carriers. On each downlink stream, the Snapdragon X20 LTE modem’s support for 256-QAM boosts the peak throughput to ~100Mbps. On the uplink, 2x20MHz carrier aggregation plus 64-QAM allows for speeds up to 150Mbps.

Snapdragon X20 LTE modem features advanced dual SIM functionality. It provides benefits of Ultra HD Voice and other IMS-based services on both SIMs inserted into the device. Snapdragon X20 LTE modem supports Snapdragon All Mode, including all major cellular technologies (LTE FDD, LTE TDD, WCDMA, TD-SCDMA, EV-DO, CDMA 1x, and GSM/EDGE), over 40 cellular frequency bands.

“We anticipate that the Snapdragon X20 LTE modem will help accelerate the worldwide adoption of Gigabit LTE, allowing users to enjoy even faster data speeds, further improving consumers’ always on mobile lifestyle,” said said Serge Willenegger, senior vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies.